1 John 5:1-12

Introduction

(1-3a) The Road to Love is Paved with Faith

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

For several weeks now, John has been insisting that the key to Christian identity is love. He ended the last chapter with, “And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” So love is central to what it means to follow Jesus. And now, at the start of chapter 5, John starts talking about faith - but he’s not really changing the subject. We’re still talking about this commandment to love God and love others, but now John tells us that the road to love is paved with faith.

Faith is from God.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,

John is determined in this section to show us that the faith that we have in Jesus is

Faith is

The road to love begins with God.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,

It’s difficult to see it in the English, but the Greek is clear. According to John, faith in Jesus rises out of the work of God’s grace in us, a work that gives us new life, a work that he calls “being born of God.” Faith is the result of God’s grace. Belief in Jesus, then, is the first sign of the new life in God.

When we hear the gospel that Christ has come to make all things new, and by his death and resurrection, we are cleansed from our sins and now have full access to God, when we hear this we do not draw on our own natural human abilities to respond in faith and belief. Paul speaks at length in about how far gone we are in our sins and the deadness of our hearts. Tim Keller puts it memorably by saying that we are far more worse off than we realize. We can’t make that leap of faith on our own, we need a dramatic work of God to bring us out of the dark and into the light, which is exactly what God does, and the first evidence of that life-giving work is that we receive the gospel and we believe.

[Lazarus]

Faith gives rise to love for God.

So the grace of God gives rise to faith, and then what? Well faith gives rise to love for God, because when we come to understand and receive, in our head and our heart, all that God has done for us, it is inevitable that we respond in gratitude and love. As he said in the previous section, “We love because he first loved us.”

And how is our love for God shown? Verse 3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” Jesus says the exact same thing in the gospel of John, except he said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Clearly, loving God means doing what pleases God, following his directives. Love and obedience are intertwined.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

Things like this make us feel a little claustrophobic. Because our culture doesn’t see the connection between love and obedience. We separate the two, even making them polar opposites at times.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But if we hold up Jesus as the ideal human, we hear him constantly saying things like, “I always do what pleases the Father. I only do what the Father asks me to do. I only do what I see the Father doing. Not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus shows us what love for God looks like in his constant pursuit of obedience.

Think about a healthy marriage: are the healthy marriages those where each partner is defining for themselves what love for the other looks like?

And Jesus isn’t weighed down by these commandments of God, because the are not burdensome. But we’ll get to that in a moment. What we see is that faith leads us into a love for God that is expressed by following God’s commandments.

Love for God gives rise to love for others.

And when John speaks of commandments, you better believe he has chapter 4 in mind: “And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” John says:

English Standard Version Chapter 5

everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

Do you see how masterfully John is making these connections between faith, love for God, and love for others? They all are intertwined and flowing out of one another.

God gives rise to faith. Faith gives rise to love for God. Love for God gives rise to love for others. This is the road to love.

How do we know that we love others? When we love God by following his commands. There is an oversimplification of the Christian faith that says that how we treat others is really all that matters in the end. I’ve seen this in youth ministry, where there’s often this assumption on the part of the family that students are dropped off at youth group so they can be “Christianized,” meaning they will be become nicer and more well adjusted people - productive members of society.

But John rules out this oversimplification. You cannot rightly love others without first loving God. One writer put it this way, “The gospel cannot be reduced to a kind of benign humanism with a horizontal, but no vertical, direction. Our love for each other is beautiful, ennobling, but tinged with sadness and ultimately tragic apart from love for God.”

The surest way to fail in our responsibility to love others is to come up short in our love for God and our obedience to his commandments. Simply being nice to people is not an adequate expression of faith, because an evidence of faith is a love for God that expresses itself in a desire to seek his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Love is the central ethic of the Christian faith, but it is a love that is founded first and foremost in the love that God has for us as his children, and flowing out from that fountain of love, we respond first in a deep love for Father, Son, and Spirit who have looked upon my helpless state and move with grace on my behalf, and finding ourselves captivated by the love of God, we long to love Him by seeking that his will be done, and what is the will of God but to see the world made new with the enduring love of Christ.

But the truth is, we don’t live in a world like that. We don’t live in a world where that movement of love flourishes, because we live in a world that opposes that movement of love, and a world that seeks to obstruct us from the faith that produces love.

(3b-5) Faith Enables us to Break Free from the Word’s Downward Pull.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Living in a faithless world is burdensome.

If the road to love is paved by faith, then where there is no faith there is no love. If we’re honest, living in a world that does not know Christ and does not operate according to his gospel is a major drag, isn’t it? Explaining how the world works, or maybe more accurately how the world doesn’t work, is one of the hardest things about being a parent. Because the brokenness of the world is a burden to all who live in it. It drags us down away from faith, away from love - it drags us down into self-centeredness, hard-heartedness, becoming stingy and inhospitable, crushing us into bitter and disappointed people who lash out in frustration at the world around them, people who no longer value what God values.

Living in a faithless world is burdensome.

We are weighed down

Faith lifts us out of the burdensome, loveless world.

But faith enables us to break free from the world’s downward pull. “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

In what sense do we conquer the world by faith? It is not by escaping the world. Too many people think that belief in Jesus helps us conquer the world because it gives us good news to hold on to while we struggle through life - that there is a joy out there in the future. So faith becomes a form of escape: this life and this world is awash because true joy and life is not found here. Escaping the world is not overcoming the world. Escaping the world admits defeat, and the gospel is not a message of defeat but a proclamation of victory.

So in what sense do we overcome the world by faith? When we understand and live out the truth that Jesus has come here, to this world and to this life, and he has come with the power to transform it from a world of darkness to a world that reflects the light and love of God. So we experience the joy of life with God now. We experience the love of God now. We aren’t waiting for it - faith is believing that is has arrived, and it has arrived in Jesus.

So by faith, the world to us is no longer a crushing burden, but an open book into which we have the opportunity to see the Lord write a story of renewal - a story that we see in our own lives as he renews us and as we through him renew the world around us. “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

(6-12) Faith Makes Possible the Fellowship and Joy that Characterizes Eternal Life.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.

The road to love is paved by faith, so the question is: will you believe? And it’s this question and challenge that John ends with. Look at verse 6:

English Standard Version Chapter 5

6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Faith brings the gospel into the core of our lives.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.

The water, blood, and Spirt summarize the gospel story of salvation. Jesus’ baptism by water marks the beginning of his ministry, his bloody crucifixion and resurrection marks the climactic and central work of God’s grace and love, and the Spirit continues to work in and through us to continue Christ’s work of renewal. Water, blood, and Spirit - God’s three witnesses to carry the case for the side of truth.

But faith isn’t knowing the gospel story. There were 3,000 people who listened to Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. 3,000 people who had heard all about Jesus for quite some time. They’d heard of the miracles, the baptism, the signs and wonders, the death, and the resurrection. They’d heard it all before, but it wasn’t until hearing Peter’s sermon that they believed.

Faith brings the gospel into the core of our lives.

This Jesus came by water, referencing his baptism, when Jesus was baptized and the heavens were torn open, the Spirit descended like a dove, and the voice of the Father affirmed that he was the Son of God. This Jesus came by blood, referencing his sacrificial death, when Jesus bore the sins of the world on the cross, and the Roman centurion who looked on affirmed that he was the Son of God.

So what changed? The Scriptures say they were cut to the heart. The gospel story that they knew stopped living outside of them and took up residence at the core of their being. “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.” This is what faith is and does: it takes the gospel, the truth of Jesus, and brings it right into the center of who we are.

But it’s more than just what we know about Jesus, it’s more than just the stories. When the crowd of 3,000 people heard Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, they heard no new information. They knew the stories about Jesus, and still they weren’t convinced. And then the third witness came into view, the Holy Spirit, sent in the name of Christ to open the eyes and hearts of people from every tribe and tongue to the truth that Jesus was the Son of God. And so hearing again the stories of Christ’s ministry, death, and resurrection, and the power of the Spirit moving in and among them, they were cut to the heart and believed.

But faith is more than being persuaded by the evidence.

Faith moves the gospel from the

According to Jewish law, two or three witnesses are required for the case to be carried, and John says that in the case of Christ as the Son of God, the case is carried. But, faith isn’t just about believing the r

Faith moves the gospel from the universal to the personal.

But faith is far more than assenting to the truth of the gospel. Faith sets in motion and sustains within us the redemptive aim of the gospel. Look at verse 10:

John draws to a conclusion by reminding us of the confidence we can have in Jesus.

Faith sets in motion and sustains within us the redemptive aim of the gospel.

But it’s more than just what we know about Jesus, it’s more than just the stories. When the crowd of 3,000 people heard Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, they heard no new information. They knew the stories about Jesus, and still they weren’t convinced. And then the third witness came into view, the Holy Spirit, sent in the name of Christ to open the eyes and hearts of people from every tribe and tongue to the truth that Jesus was the Son of God. And so hearing again the stories of Christ’s ministry, death, and resurrection, and the power of the Spirit moving in and among them, they were cut to the heart and believed.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

And as belief in Jesus takes up residence in our core, the aim of the gospel is set in motion within us. The aim of the gospel, which is that Christ would make all things new, that work is set in motion within us through faith. And it isn’t just we ourselves who reap the blessing, but the fellowship and joy and love that is the aim of the gospel, becomes a reality in our lives.

Faith sets in motion and sustains within us the redemptive aim of the gospel.

Here’s how it works:

More than any other gospel author, John gives us the most realized eschatology, which is a fancy way of saying that John reminds us that many of the promises and blessing of God that we long to be a reality, are actually available to God’s children now through faith in Jesus. “Whoever has the Son has life.”

Joe

Conclusion

So the love for others that we long for, for ourselves and for the world at large, is possible only through faith in Jesus. For God’s love to flourish, there must be faith in Christ. The road to love is paved by faith. Do you believe?

Maybe you’re like the 3,000 at Pentecost - you’ve heard all the stories, but you’ve never really taken it to heart. Any time you are presented with the love of God in Jesus, you are presented with this question: “Will you choose life? Will you choose love? They are only found in Jesus.”

Maybe you’re like the man whom Jesus met who was honest and told Jesus, “I believe, but help my unbelief.” Maybe you truthfully do believe, but in certain areas or seasons of life, you take a posture of unbelief - maybe you’ve chosen to be willfully ignorant, or grown apathetic, or disenchanted, or have slid into mere lip service. The challenge is for you as well, “Will you choose life? Will you choose love? They are only found in Jesus.”

This is he who came by water and blood. He loves you. He wants to be with you, to make you new, and to share the life that is his with you. Let’s pray.